Metadata reveals the Stand For Palestine Telegram group is administered by a Tunisian Hizb ut-Tahrir activist,while its WhatsApp group is managed by three Australian Hizb ut-Tahrir figures.

Key backers of the group have also regularly spoken at Stand For Palestine-branded events and delivered sermons and lectures at the Sydney University student encampment.

In a statement in response to questions by this masthead,camp organisers said the encampment was a coalition of groups and organisations:“We’re a broad and diverse community here to simply demand our university cut ties with genocide and Israel.”

Sydney University ordered the sprawling campto pack up and leave campus on Friday,almost eight weeks after it sprung up.

It is not the first time the group has used a popular cause to gain support. Before rallying under the Stand For Palestine banner,the group was behind the Stand For Uyghurs campaign protesting against human rights abuses of the Muslim minority in China.

Following October 7,social media accounts actively rallying behind the Stand For Uyghurs cause were quickly rebranded as Stand For Palestine accounts,and within days began promoting events and sharing content about Israel’s counter-offensive in Gaza.

British counter-extremism expert Hadiya Masieh,who was a member of Hizb ut-Tahrir for a decade before leaving the group in the aftermath of the 7/7 bombings in London in 2005,said Hizb ut-Tahrir preyed on vulnerable people and used popular causes as a hook.

“Hizb ut-Tahrir,like other extreme groups,will use any mechanism they can to push their agenda,” she said.

“They divide,they prey on people,and they brand and market themselves very well. So they are very interested in using as many avenues as possible.”

A day after Hamas had launched its co-ordinated attack in southern Israel,killing about 1200 people and taking another 250 hostage,radical Islamist preacher Sheikh Ibrahim Dadoun shared his feelings of elation with the crowd at a Hizb ut-Tahrir-sponsored gathering in Lakemba,in Sydney’s south-west.

“I’m smiling and I’m happy,” Dadoun told attendees. “I’m elated. It’s a day of courage. It’s a day of pride. It’s a day of victory. This is the day we’ve been waiting for.”

He later denied that the statements meant he was condoning the killing of civilians.

Since then,the group has issued calls for armies from Muslim-majority countries to “ignore artificial borders” and “respond to their divine obligation” to join Hamas in its fight against Israel,and referred to the conflict in Gaza as a first step in the establishment of a global caliphate.

“If a handful of Muslims could rattle the occupation and the entire international community in a single morning,what then could be achieved by the collective efforts of the surrounding armies of Muslim countries?” a Hizb ut-Tahrir press release dated October 8 read.

“The liberation of Palestine by the Muslims will be the start of the liberation of humanity from the clutches of the West,and that day is sooner than we think inshallah[God willing].”

When this masthead approached Dadoun for comment,he refused to answer questions.

“Hizb ut-Tahrir have been around for a long period of time,” Roose said. “Many people view them as redundant,as irrelevant,to the conversation. However,in recent years in particular,they have become more active,and the extent of their rhetoric,and the potential violence inherent in their rhetoric,is also concerning.”

It is this rhetoric that prompted British Home Secretary James Cleverly to controversially proscribe Hizb ut-Tahrir as a terrorist group in January,arguing it would hamstring the group’s ability to operate and allow authorities to come after its supporters.

The move has been criticised by civil libertarians,Muslim groups and some security experts who claim it curtails free speech and risks pushing the group underground where it would be harder to monitor.

The decision came after the British chapter praised the October 7 attacks and Hamas as “heroes”,and fantasised about what a unified Muslim world could achieve “if this can be done by a resistance group”.

Hizb ut-Tahrir further inflamed the situation by holding a pro-Palestine rally in London where members made inflammatory speeches calling for jihad and Muslim armies to intervene in Gaza.

Until that moment,Hizb ut-Tahrir had successfully walked the line between engaging in incendiary commentary and breaking terrorism laws,dodging separate proscription attempts under Britain and Australia’s differing legal regimes.

This masthead is not suggesting Hizb ut-Tahrir supporters are terrorists or that all its members condone terrorism.

Roose said that while banning Hizb ut-Tahrir could prove a difficult process,hate speech laws should be strengthened to capture the dangerous rhetoric being promoted by its members.

“They might not be necessarily crossing that line into advocating terrorism,but there is inherent violence in what they’re saying and doing,” Roose said.

For more,watch60 Minutes on Sunday night at 8.05pm.